[meteorite-list] Wired Science Meteorite Segment

[Notkin]

On Jan 3, 2007, at 7:00 PM, tett wrote:

> Fess up guys, was this iron planted?  If it was, it really does not 
> detract from a great news
> article and the new "find" helps to give the segment more pizzaz!

Dear Tett:

Thanks for the enthusiastic comments.

Funny you should ask about the iron being planted, because the host 
asked us the same thing! No, we did not plant it. What they don't show 
are the hours and days Steve spent on his own hunting for a good 
signal. Before shooting started Steve had marked some underground 
targets with little surface flags to save time while the crew was on 
location (but left the targets buried and untouched).

When we finally got the film crew out into the field, all the flags had 
gone. They may have been scooped up by a tractor -- it is a working 
farm after all. So, Steve had to start over and go find the targets 
from scratch. Just ask him how long it took to find those targets  : )

As you can imagine, Steve has a pretty good ear and we both felt this 
one might be a real iron, and it was. What they also don't show you are 
the next 19 (?) targets Steve dug up over the next few digs, none of 
which were meteorites. The way the show is edited does make it look 
pretty easy. We were only supposed to have a seven-minute segment, and 
they expanded it to eleven, so I guess we actually got more airtime 
than planned, so I'm not complaining.

I put together a "Making-of" feature about the show, and that goes into 
a little more detail.

I hope you enjoy it:  http://www.aerolite.org/wired-science.htm


Thanks for watching.

Sincerely,

Geoff N.

www.aerolite.org

Official supplier of Steve Arnold Brenham meteorites
http://www.aerolite.org/brenham.htm